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SELF PORTBRALL 


THE WORK OF 


CHARLES LEWIS FOX 


1854 - 1927 


PRIVATELY PRINTED 


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FOREWORD 


“To me the mission of Art is too world wide to confine it- 
self to beauty alone, for character and harmony each claim. 
the divine right to its own utterance, and how much broader 
and deeper and richer the world of Art when they also speak.” 


Excerpt from a letter 
written by Charles Lewis Fox 


HERE occurs from time to time in the art life of a people an artist that, 

with a singleness of aim and from an integrity of spirit, finds his great- 
est development in what is veritable solitude, far from the various ephemeral 
movements that cross the field of art, and thus, Charles Lewis Fox. 

Born in Portland, Maine, September 20, 1854, the son of Archelaus Lewis 
Fox and Dorcas Yeaton, he was descended from an old Maine family of seafar- 
ing men. 

He died in Portland after a brief illness in his 73rd year on March 20, 1927. 
His early education was in the public schools of Portland and for a time he con- 
sidered architecture as his lifework, and with that purpose in mind he entered 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. 

He finally decided that painting was his real vocation and after a year in Bos- 
ton he started on his appointed path. 

France was then the Mecca of all the seekers of the artist’s way and there he 
went, to work for six years under Bonnat and Cabanel and for a period in the Go- 
belin Ateliers as an apprentice weaver, there to study the method, and the de- 
sign and color of those master makers of tapestry. 

Painting and the artist’s expression meant something more to Charles 
Lewis Fox than a transcript of nature and a search for beauty. A great and 
idealistic soul, with an altruistic spirit that strove to make his offering a message 


with a purpose, whether it be that of the militant crusader for a socialistic scheme 


of economic life, or the man of vision striving to emphasize the beauty that lies 
in common things. 

There was in all he wrought that greater cause to him, that would symbolize 
in his art mortal sorrow and sacrifice and the dignity of those who toil. 

This same spirit, this sense of wanting all to share with him, what to him was 
his greatest joy, led him on his return to Portland to establish a school, with day 
and night classes, that found in him always a devoted teacher and a loyal friend 
that served without thought of self. The school was conducted on a purely co- 
dperative basis—the nominal costs of its maintenance being shared by its stu- 
dents. 

An increasing and enthusiastic interest in the social and economic problems 
of our day led his broad humanitarian spirit into active participation in the work 
of the Socialist Labor Party and twice was he its candidate for Governor of his 
State. It was during this period that he painted the three large decorations, 
“The Working God and the Sower” “The Lady Godiva” and “Adam and Eve.” 
Then came a period when the palette and brush were deserted, and after fif- 
teen years apart from his easel in the stress of this militant socialism, he returned 
to his art, and there found peace in an earnest effort to save for posterity some- 
thing of the life of a primitive people—the Indians of our Maine woods. 

Long before there was a Taos school, and men like Ufer, Blumenschein, Hig- 
gins and Sloan, and the other men of the New Mexico group had discovered the 
American Indian, did Charles Lewis Fox feel the urge and the need to make 
some record from the artist’s understanding of the passing of a fast vanishing 
race. 

So we have from his heart and hand these expressive character studies of 
the Indian. 

He learned to know them, he lived with them, he loved them and they loved 
him and took him to themselves. He was able to break through their reticence 
and their distrust of the alien race, and the veneer that a civilization, to which they 
have never really submitted, had placed upon them. 

How well is this symbolized in the canvas, “Forever Indian,” with all its 
power and movement, a race pushed under by a relentless fate, but always even 
unto utter extinction “Forever Indian.” 


Something of his delight and understanding of the design in the Indian arts 
of basketry, weaving and pottery he gives us in his own art. Pattern and de- 
sign were never far from his mind for he did not forget the lesser factors in his 
thought for the spirit of his message. With a prevision that is most significant 
in his second period, there is an almost prophetic expression of what has become 
the trend of the Art of our day, and this though he lived during this time in a 
hermit like retreat from the world of his fellow artists and workers. 

He found time during his yearly visits to his summer home at Bridgton, 
Maine, to paint a most comprehensive set of studies of the mushroom, native 
to the state and these studies and his accompanying notes it is hoped will be 
placed where they will be of service to the student and the public. 

A live imagination, the soul of a crusader, always the seeker for the greater 
truth in life and art, his work will live as the expression of the spiritual yearning 


of a sensitive artist and a gallant gentleman. 


ALEXANDER BOWER. 


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The Street Musician 
Painted in Holland 1886 


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Henrietta Moody Fox 
Portrait Sketch 1920 


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The Little Dutch Girl 
A Prayer 


Painted in Holland 1885 


Music 
To youth wonder, to age memories 
Painted in Portland 1887 


a The Gleaner 
Painted in Holland 1885 


Spilled Milk 
Painted in Holland 1886 


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Westward 


_ Painted in Portland 1892 


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The Path of the City Working Man 
Painted in Portland 1892 


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Sensual Music 
Painted in Portland 1890 


The Little Graveyard 
Painted in Bridgton, Maine, 1895 


Mountain Swallow 
Painted in Jay, Maine, 1889 


NOTE 


The foregoing pages and including the large decorative 
paintings, “The Working God and the Sower,” “The Lady 
Godiva,” and “Adam and Eve,” placed in the last pages to 
facilitate handling the book, comprise what might be termed 
his first period. 

In this phase always was the ethical message preéminent, 
always the protestant, the crusader, the man of poignant sym- 
pathy seeking expression for his sense of the inequalities of 
life. 

After a long period of quiescence came a revived interest in 
art, and in this second period, in the pages to follow, it is as 
though another man began to work out new problems of form, 
color and light. 

Pattern, rhythm, solidarity of color, the design and not the 
fact became more and more the fundamental intent, and finally 
there is found in the flower studies and the rock paintings on 
Cape Elizabeth the last phases of his work where pure design 
and color movement are done for their own intrinsic value. 

This is a most interesting development, this final approach 
to the abstract. Fact as purely visual fact in constant definite 


recession. 
A. B. 


Nick 
An Indian Guide 
Painted in Oldtown 1920 


Study 


Made about 1920 
in Oldtown, Maine 


The Basket Maker 
Painted in Oldtown, Maine, 1920 


Julia 
An Indian Child 
Painted in Oldtown, 1926 


Study 
Indian with Head Dress 


Painted in Oldtown 1920 


Study 
Made in Oldtown, Maine, about 1926 


Swimming Indian Boy 
Painted in Oldtown, Maine, 1920 


Indian Girl 
Painted in Oldtown, Maine, 1920 


Indian Character Study 
Made in Oldtown about 1926 


The Salute 
Painted in Oldtown, Maine, 1920 


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The Lost Sun God 
A Mayan Study 


Painted in Portland 1920 


Forever Indian 
Painted in Portland 1920 


The Snake Mother 
An Indian Allegory 


Painted in Portland 1922 


Portrait Sketch 
Made about 1921 


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The Cliff, Spurwink 
Painted on Cape Elizabeth 1923 


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A Study of Cactus 
in Portland about 1925 


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Spurwink Shore 
Painted on Cape Elizabeth 1923 


Floral Study 
Made about 1925 


Jutting Rock, Spurwink 
Painted on Cape Elizabeth 1923 


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Portrait of Henrietta Moody Fox 
Bird of Paradise Motif and Design 


Painted 1924 


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